The Top 10 Items You Won't Believe They Counterfeited

by Theta1138July 29, 2010 at 10:00AM
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Views: 1,734

Counterfeit products are a real problem if you're charging offensive amounts of money for useless crap. Nobody actually cries when Louis Vuitton loses a sale to a cheap knockoff, and not just because he's French. But believe it or not, counterfeit products are a lot more common, and a lot more stupid, than you'd think.

You might expect handbags and electronics to be forged, but not cheap crap you get at the convenience store. Yet it gets forged all the time too. You might recall Ferrero Rocher as those gold-wrapped chocolates that are everywhere every Christmas, including your stocking, whether you want them or not. At fifty cents a pop, you’d think the profit margin on forging these would make it pointless. Don't underestimate those industrious Chinese, though. In September 2007, counterfeit Ferrero Rocher chocolates were found on the American market. The packaging was perfect, but the Chinese manufacturer forgot one very little tiny detail: chocolates aren't generally flavored with maggots.

Even worse, they didn't even change the protein percentage on the label. Come on, guys, at least be accurate!

9. Beer

Source: Peter Dazeley/Photographer's Choice/Getty Images

There are a lot of reasons it sucks to live in Nigeria. When the best job in the country is sending spam emails pretending to be a deposed dictator who wants to deposit $10,000,000 in your checking account, you know it’s a bad place to live.

Just to make things worse, they can’t even get a decent brewski. Nigerian beer distributors, obviously out to reinforce our opinion of Nigeria as the Land of Fraud, regularly doctor cheap beer with a variety of flavorings and try to pass it off as fancier stuff like Guinness. Guys, instead of stealing our money to buy decent beer, just ask. We’ll ship you some.

8. Batteries

Source: Nick M Do/Photodisc/Getty Images

Forging batteries seems kind of pointless. After all, people can usually tell if the battery is fake or not about five seconds after flipping the on/off switch repeatedly and realizing nothing has happened. But apparently, counterfeiting batteries is big business. After all, all you need to do is make a cheap battery and wrap a fancy brand label around it, right?

Hey, speaking of power sources that are dirt cheap and pointless to forge, how about extension cords? There can't be anybody forging cord most people only buy when they move and realize their lamp is across the room from the only outlet, right?

Yep, there's a market for counterfeit extension cords. Mostly it comes from the fact that it's kind of expensive to get a mark from the Underwriter's Laboratory (UL), so instead of actually subjecting their products to safety testing, they just slap the mark on there and ship it out. After all, it's not like anyone is going to notice! Until the fire starts!

6. Toothpaste

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You probably don't think much about the stuff you use to scrub your teeth. You've got a brand, you buy it at the store, maybe you change brands occasionally depending on which one is available. Just avoid the one with the crooked printing, since it might have the cleaning power of anti-freeze.

Back in 2007, 5 ounce tubes of Colgate turned up containing diethylene glycol, a chemical you usually find in your engine. Why, precisely, anti-freeze turned up in toothpaste remains a mystery. Or maybe not. If it's good enough for metal parts, it has to be great for teeth, right?